Thursday, October 25, 2018

Astronomers Discover Slowest Ever Pulsar Star

A team of
astronomers including a PhD student from the University of Manchester
has discovered the slowest-spinning pulsar star to date. This study was
made possible through observations using the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR)
in the Netherlands.

The product of a supernova, pulsars are
rapidly rotating neutron stars that produce electromagnetic radiation at
specific frequencies. Located in the constellation Cassiopeia
approximately 5,200 light-years away from Earth, this pulsar spins at a
rate of once every 23.5 seconds. This contrasts with the previously
slowest pulsar which had emitted radio waves every 8.5 seconds.

Unlike
previous discoveries, this pulsar also releases radio emissions that
last only 200 milliseconds per rotation. That meant that if the timing
had been off even a few milliseconds, the radio beams might have missed
Earth entirely making this discovery impossible.

“The radio emission that comes from a pulsar acts like a cosmic
lighthouse and you can only see the signal if the radio beam is facing
towards you," said Chia Min Tan from Manchester's School of Physics and Astronomy. "In this case the beam is so narrow that it might easily
have missed the Earth. “Slow-spinning pulsars are even harder to
detect. It is incredible to think that this pulsar spins more than 15000
times more slowly than the fastest spinning pulsar known. We hope that
there are more to be found with LOFAR”.

Article Compiled By: Kyle Tam

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